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Catalyst Corporate Encourages Members to Stay in International Remittance Business

Thursday, May 30, 2013 6:25 AM

Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) first announced the details of its proposed international remittance regulations to implement section 1073 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, credit unions and other financial institutions have been talking openly about exiting the international remittance business.

Brad Ganey, senior vice president and COO of Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union, pointed out that things have changed quite a bit during recent months, including the fact that some institutions have been working hard to develop the functionality to facilitate credit union compliance. He added that credit unions using Catalyst Corporate’s international wire product will have disclosure functionality seamlessly built into the transaction process.

Another major factor is the relief provided in the final rule, Ganey said.

“The CFPB has significantly reduced the burden on remittance providers of including hard-to-obtain information about fees charged by other entities,” Ganey said. “Remittance providers now will have the ability to distinguish certain ‘non-covered third-party fees’ from those charged by the remittance provider.”

Along the same lines, financial institutions will not have to disclose taxes collected by any party other than the remittance provider. The disclosure should state that the recipient may receive less than the disclosed total value of the transfer due to fees and taxes that may be deducted later.

Additionally, Ganey said credit unions won’t be liable for errors caused by wrong or insufficient information provided by the “consumer sender”’ under certain fairly reasonable conditions as a result of funds being deposited into the wrong recipient account.
To eliminate liability in these instances, the credit union would have to be able to demonstrate that the sender provided incorrect or incomplete information and that the sender was notified that incorrect or incomplete information could cause the transfer amount to be lost. To avoid liability, credit unions also must employ reasonable verification measures to help ensure the accuracy of a recipient institution identifier, and must engage in investigation and reasonable efforts to retrieve the mis-deposited funds.

Credit unions with questions about how to become compliant with Section 1073 of Dodd-Frank and the revised CFPB rule can participate in upcoming webinars during June and July, where Catalyst Corporate will provide a preview of its international wire system modifications. Registration for these webinars, along with historical information about the regulation, also may be found at www.catalystcorp.org/doddfrank.aspx